FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method for checking electrical drive mechanisms, especially motor or magnetic drive mechanisms of fittings, final control elements, power contactors or relays, in which a measured value is picked up at a drive mechanism and a signal describing the measured value is output, the signal is compared with a desired value, and an error is indicated if there is a deviation of the signal from the desired value. The invention also relates to an apparatus for performing such a method.
Until now, when checking a plurality of electrical drive mechanisms, it has been conventional to check each of the drive mechanisms individually. To that end, often every drive mechanism to be checked was disconnected from its circuit and connected successively, one at a time, to a separate test circuit. Thus checking a large number of electrical drive mechanisms took a great deal of time.
In an apparatus for checking an electrical drive mechanism which is known from European Patent 0 609 261 B1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,051, the usual operation of the drive mechanism need not be interrupted during the checking process. Each drive mechanism is connected individually to an evaluation unit, through a diagnostic connector, for the purpose of checking. A polarization pickup on a plug-in module of the drive mechanism serves merely to tell which plug-in module the diagnostic connector is connected to. Only one drive mechanism can be checked at a time with one evaluation unit. Checking a plurality of drive mechanisms simultaneously requires of a plurality of identical versions of the known apparatuses.